In order to better understand the concept of isomerism, it is good to begin at the root of the word itself. Isomerism can be broken down from ancient Greek language. In Greek, iso means “same”, while meros translates to “part.” From this, one can deduce that isomerism is a concept associated with similar parts. Essentially, isomerism in chemistry is defined as having two or more molecules containing the same number and kind of atoms, but differing in structure and/or function. Today, one can learn about several types of isomers that are highly important in our world. Isomerism is considered to be a great advance in our understanding of chemistry, especially organic chemistry. But how is it that this concept came to be a part of science? The …show more content…
For example, some biological isomers can be more active than others. This means that one isomer can perform more work than the next one in a metabolic pathway. Isomers are important to life because of the fact that humans are composed of a series of arrangements of organic molecules like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. that require a great level of complexity in order to carry out essential biological processes. All these arrangements are not only complex in their content of atoms, but also in their bonding. They are usually composed of a series of single or double bonds that can even form ring structures. For this reason most organic compounds in life are more than likely to have an isomer. Furthermore, evolution of biological systems has always been known to favor the use of one isomer over another in order to move forward and benefit that system. Isomerism is also a highly important concept to understand in the drug production process. Several drugs are fabricated yearly and adapted to fight several symptoms of sickness throughout the human biological system. Such symptoms include pain, allergies, infection, psychological problems, and so on. The way these drugs become effective is through the interaction with protein receptors in the human body that will target the specific protein in the problem area. The drug will have to mimic the proteins in the problem area and in most cases the drugs will change the conformation or function of a protein-enzyme system in order to regulate that metabolic pathway. The only way a drug can mimic a human protein receptor and change its conformation is through the concept of an isomer. The drug will have the same atom kind and number, leading to an identical chemical formula. However, the function will vary, making the drug effective in the metabolic pathway. These examples are enough to prove
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However, the atoms are arranged a little differently. Two molecules that have this type of relationship are called isomers.
To separate molecules that are attracted to one another using the principles of intermolecular forces as well as a scientific ratio to find the identity of unknown substances.
Members of a superfamily differ from member of a family. The term family is used to describe receptors that are similar in structure as they are coded for by similar genes, whereas superfamilies are different from each other in structure and function, but evolves from a common ancestor, thus they mu...
Throughout history, the curiosities of obtaining knowledge of facts that show the operation of general laws have resulted into the improvements of today’s society. Such curiosity of chemical reactions coiled in the minds of John Dalton in the atomic theory, Rosalind Franklin with genetics, and most importantly Antoine Lavoisier the father of modern chemistry. All who, worked extensively to acquire the understanding that fascinated them most, chemistry. Another chemist who sought after the same knowledge was Stanislao Cannizzaro. Studying organic chemistry Cannizzaro explained how certain elements lacked the hydrogen atom in what is know n as the Cannizzaro Reaction.
1. J R Partington, A history of chemistry, volume 3 . London, UK: Macmillan, 1962
3. Corey, E. J., Barbara Czako, and Laszlo Kurti. Molecules and medicine. New Jersey: John
There are billions of people on this earth and each is unique in its own way. The same is true for molecules and substances. There are billions of different molecules and substances on earth and each one has unique properties to make it what it is. When looking at some of the smallest characteristics of things, molecular shape and intermolecular forces come into play. Molecular shape and intermolecular forces help determine what physical properties substances and objects have. Each plays a key role. Science is able to break substances down and determine what molecular shape and intermolecular forces have to do with physical properties.
This chemistry book report is focus on a book called “Napoleon's buttons: How 17 molecules changed history” by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson. The publisher of this book is Tarcher Putnam, the book was published in Canada on 2003 with 17 chapters (hey the number match the title of the book!) and a total of 378 pages. The genre of this book is nonfiction. “Napoleon's Buttons” contain a fascinating story of seventeen groups of molecules that have greatly changed the course of history and continuing affect the world we live in today. It also reveal the astonishing chemical connection among some unrelated events, for example: Chemistry caused New Amsterdamers to be renamed New Yorkers and one little accident of detonating cotton apron in a minor housekeeping mishap lead to the development of modern explosives and the founding of the movie industry.
This showed that dissolved gases were mechanically mixed with the water and weren?t mixed naturally. But in 1803 it was found that this depended on the weight of the individual particles of the gas or atoms. By assuming the particles were the same size, Dalton was able to develop the idea of atomic weights. In 1803 this theory was finalised and stated that (1) all matter is made up of the smallest possible particles termed atoms, (2) atoms of a given element have unique characteristics and weight, and (3) three types of atoms exist: simple (elements), compound (simple molecules), and complex (complex molecules).
Boyle was the founder of modern chemistry. He performed experiments dealing with pressure, using an air pump and discovered the volume and pressure in gases. Hooke gave the first rational explanation of combustion; as a combination with air. Mayow studied animal respiration. As they all worked together to figure out the theory of combustion, two Germans named J.J Becher and G.E Stahl introduced the false phlogiston theory of combustion, which came to a theory that all substance phlogiston is contained in all combustible bodies then escapes when the bodies burn. The discovery of gases and analysis of air as a mixture in gas occurred during the phlogiston period. Carbon dioxide first came about by J. B van Helmont then later discovered by Joseph Black in 1754. The next element was hydrogen; hydrogen was discovered by Boyle but was carefully studied by Henry Cavendish, which was called inflammable air. Cavendish also found the explosion of hyd...
In other words, the definition of something chemical related may not have the same meaning when defining it in physical or biological terms. This shows that biology is not comparable to physics and chemistry as their definitions, languages, etc. do not match up. Such an overlap would cause the field of sciences to become virtually dysfunctional because nothing would be clear – there would be constant confusion,
Dalton’s idea is that all things are made of small bits of matter, these bits of matter where too small to be seen even with a microscope. Scientists began to think these small bits of matter were responsible for chemical changes. They thought that when these bits of matter combined, a chemical change took place. Dalton assumed that there was a special pattern in the elements and was partly responsible for the periodic table. Dalton in 1787 started to keep a journal.
Things are very different from each other, and can be broken down into small groups inside itself, which was then noticed early by people, and Greek thinkers, about 400BC. Which just happened to use words like "element', and `atom' to describe the many different parts and even the smallest parts of matter. These ideas were around for over 2000 years while ideas such as `Elements' of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water to explain `world stuff' came and went. Much later, Boyle, an experimenter like Galileo and Bacon, was influenced much by Democritus, Gassendi, and Descartes, which lent much important weight to the atomic theory of matter in the 1600s. Although it was Lavoisier who had divided the very few elements known in the 1700's into four different classes, and then John Dalton made atoms even more believable, telling everyone that the mass of an atom was it's most important property. Then in the early 1800's Dobereiner noted that the similar elements often had relative atomic masses, and DeChancourtois made a cylindrical table of elements to display the periodic reoccurrence of properties. Cannizaro then determined atomic weights for the 60 or so elements known in the 1860s, and then a table was arranged by Newlands, with the many elements given a serial number in order of their atomic weights, of course beginning with Hydrogen. That made it clear that "the eighth element, starting from a given one, is a kind of a repeat of the first", which Newlands called the Law of Octaves.
Molecular pharmacology deals with the biochemical and biophysical characteristics of interactions between molecules of different substances and those of the cell. In other words, it is molecular biology applied to pharmacologic and toxicologic questions. The methods of molecular pharmacology include precise mathematical, physical, chemical and molecular biological techniques to understand how cells respond to hormones or pharmacologic agents, and how chemical structure correlates with biological activity of various